[War] US: The Commander-In-Chief Calls

[John Penta]

"The Commander-in-Chief calls..."
16 July 2014
Pres. John Williams
USA
===========================
[OOC: This post inspired by this story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/blacks_in_the_military;
- especially the disturbing stat that there are members of Congress
submitting zero noms to the service academies.]

<Washington>

"Now that -is- an interesting stat, Colonel. Any guesses as to why you
think it might be?"

SECDEF and POTUS were meeting with COL Gene Waranski, head of
admissions at West Point, as part of their usual post "Plebe
Summer"-start briefings on the new classes of the service academies.

He'd mentioned a very interesting - and not-a-little-concerning -
statistic about the accession sources of the latest class: 45 Senators
and Members of Congress had submitted zero nominations to any of the
service academies. The overwhelming majority of those members, about
two thirds, were black or Hispanic, all of those representing
majority-black or Hispanic districts among the House members.

Thus why the Speaker of the House and the head of the Congressional
Black Caucus were about to be invited for a chat.

"No, sir. I'd hate to hazard guesses, on the record or off. You'd have
to ask them, sir."

"I plan to, Colonel. Pointedly." POTUS noted.

The briefing went on for a bit, then the Colonel left. Overall, the
new class wasn't so bad...But the lack of nominations from some
members was...concerning.

Hence why the President made some calls.
---
Actions:
1. Ask pointedly why some members of Congress aren't submitting any
nominations to the service academies; if there are none to submit,
okay...but otherwise, The White House is Concerned.
2. Nudge said members - c'mon, there gotta be some who've inquired...
3. Ask the head of the CBC to nudge his members a bit on the issue -
we can only have diverse academies if we have a diverse applicant
pool, after all.